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by Milieva



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal, Post-Episode: s02e13 Doomsday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-11
Updated: 2007-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:54:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27641002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieva/pseuds/Milieva
Summary: Sometimes a little bit of a jiggery poke is all it takes to find out what you wanted to know, but be careful, you may learn more than you thought you wanted to know.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Side A

The microphone recorded the shuffling of the camera as the lens took in a clear view of the console. Muffled voices gained resonance as the microphone was adjusted.

“Is it recording?” asked an inquisitive female voice.

“Yes.” was the brisk cheerful reply.

“Didn’t the tape run out?”

“Yes.”

“So where is it recording?” 

The camera shifted and came into focus on a blonde leaning against the base of the console. She adjusted her hair when she noticed she was being filmed.

“Tardis memory bank.” came the reply from the cameraman.

“What?”

“This will remain forever in the memory systems of my ship.”

“You just think you are so clever, don’t you?”

The screen shifted as the man came to sit beside her, holding the camera so it took them both into the frame. His hair was more ruffled than usual; he’d likely been fussing over the connection for a while. 

He broke into a broad grin as he replied to the camera. “I know I am.”

The blonde scooted closer to him, her cheek resting against his. As she gazed at the lens. “So, what should we say?”

“Hello. I’m the Doctor. This is Rose.”

Rose punched him in the arm. “Can’t you say something different? You always introduce us like that.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“I say I do not.” He paused for a short moment as if to search for evidence. “Queen Victoria.”

“Oh, right.”

“See?”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t bring that up, if I were you.”

He looked hurt. “It was only a century.”

“A century with a very big fashion difference.”

The Doctor turned toward her and spoke playfully in his Scottish accent. “Aye, you were quite a wee naked child.”

“Shut up.” She shoved him and the camera fell from the Doctor's hands and rattled across the grating, the screen fuzzing out, but voices still heard.

“You broke it.” He whined.

“You should have held it better.”

There was a gentle buzzing hum near the microphone.

“Doctor, be careful. Don’t make it worse.”

“At my age, I think I know a thing or two about fixing…”

The video cut off and the screen reverted back to the jumble of Gallifreyan symbols.

Martha drummed her fingers on the console. She still wondered about the ever mentioned Rose, but she had no idea how she had found that video in the first place.

Glancing over her shoulder, to be sure the Doctor wasn’t on his way back from where ever he was; she began to poke about again. She had found the first thing by accident. Coincidently she had been intently thinking of finding something about Rose.

Maybe the ship was telepathic?

That was silly. Who would need a telepathic ship? Then again. What proper ship traveled in space and time, and happened to be bigger on the inside? Maybe a ship being telepathic was just as normal as the rest of this silly blue box.

.oOo.

Another quarter-hour passed her by and still, she had found nothing else out, other than turning that one particular knob produced a very annoying sound. Perhaps she should leave before the Doctor came back, or she broke something and stranded them somewhere strange. 

“I just want to know more about Rose.” She said to no one. “And why is she not here?”

She turned to leave, but her jacket seemed to have caught on a lever of sorts. She tried to gently pull it off, but it wouldn’t move. Again. Not an inch. Finally, she grabbed it and pulled as hard as she could.

The jacket came loose.

The lever moved.

A filmy hologram flickered to life.


	2. Side B

The hologram was fuzzy at first, but slowly cleared. 

An image of Rose stood in the middle of the control room looking around as if she might get caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to do. Finally, she steadied and looked straight at Martha.

“Okay. Hope I didn’t do any permanent damage.” Rose fiddled with the tool in her hand a moment before setting it on the console. “You did this whole hologram message thing first, so I thought I’d give it a try. It’s set on a timer…I think. Can’t exactly read the screen all that well.”

Running her fingers through her hair, the girl seemed to be deep in thought.

“Only got so far as thinking about recording this, yeah? Didn’t give much thought ‘bout what to say. Dunno when you’ll be back anyway.”

The blonde took that moment to glance back down the corridor. Martha’s eyes followed hers for similar reasons.

“I think I’ve set this for a few years from now, or some point when you do something stupid to the control panel. And I am letting the TARDIS decide when she wants to show it to you. I may change it later, but…”

Rose took a deep breath and seemed to be fighting back tears.

“I won’t be with you forever. I know that. I can spend the rest of my life with you, but then you will have to live on. Alone. I don’t want you to be alone. You don’t deserve to be alone. No matter what pigheaded thought makes you feel you don’t deserve someone else in your life…just don’t push people away, yeah? I wish I could be with you forever. The forever I promise, you but I know I can’t give you.” 

Rose wiped back tears and smudged her mascara a little.

“When I am gone. I want you to have a good life. Savin’ people, and runnin’ for your life, bein’ imprisoned, all the fun and adventures... Getting drunk and doing stupid things... We shouldn’t ever have been allowed to be alone with any sort of alcohol. After Vegas and Barcelona… Next thing you know, you might trade the TARDIS in for a proper house.”

She laughed a broken, hollow laugh.

“Yeah, right. You in a house. That would be the day…”

Glancing back down the corridor, the woman turned toward the console, her hand poised over a switch.

She turned back to where Martha stood and continued in a low voice.

“And if we both have been too stupid to say it to one another so far… I love you. I think I always have. And even if you never say it… I know.”

A familiar voice called from the background as the Rose turned back, her hand still over the switch. “Rose Tyler, are you ready for an adventure?” 

“Always,” Rose called in a barely cheerful voice.

One flick of the filmy hand and the entire projection vanished.

Martha stood staring at the empty space before her. The mirth in the Doctor’s voice was not like anything she had heard from him. He was genuinely happy. More so than she had ever heard him.

And Rose had loved him. Said she wanted to stay forever, but she knew there would come a point when she would die.

The girl in the hologram was so young. About the same age as she was.

Could she really have died?

Grabbing her jacket from the floor, Martha suddenly felt that she had honestly stumbled on something that could have her kicked off the ship. She hurried back into the ship toward her little room.

_“…and even if you never say it… I know.”_

The Doctor had loved her. And that wound was still sore.

Whatever became of Rose Tyler?


End file.
